System for lighting a group of lamps in a personal weighing device

ABSTRACT

A group of lamps on a weighing device comprises a lamp adapted to be lit in accordance with a standard weight (with respect to a particular height of a weighed person). Further, a plurality of other lamps are adapted to be lit in accordance with a predetermined percentage excess or a shortage, relative to the standard weight. Thus, a condition relative to the standard weight may be directly indicated to a weighed person in accordance with a particular lamp which is lit.

United States Patent [191 Muroga 1' Nov. 27, 1973 [54] SYSTEM FOR LIGHTING A GROUP OF 3,664,445 5/1972 Conklin 177/45 LAMPS IN A PERSONAL WEIGHING 1,345,587 7/1920 Dahne 177/48 DEVICE Inventor: Masafumi Muroga, Tokyo, Japan Kabushiki Kaisha Tanita Seisakusho, Tokyo, Japan Filed: Aug. 7, 1972 Appl. No.: 278,354

Assignee:

Foreign Application Priority Data Aug. 8, 1971 Japan 46/70449 US. Cl 177/173, 177/45, 177/48, 177/174 Int. Cl G01g 23/14 Field of Search 177/37, 41, 42, 45, 177/48, 173, 174

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 4/1972 Yamajima 177/ 173 Primary Examiner-Richard B. Wilkinson Assistant ExaminerVit W. Miska Att0rney-B. Franklin Griffin, Jr. et a].

[57] ABSTRACT A group of lamps on a weighing device comprises a lamp adapted to be lit in accordance with a standard weight (with respect to a particular height of a weighed person). Further, a plurality of other lamps are adapted to be lit in accordance with a predetermined percentage excess or a shortage, relative to the standard weight. Thus, a condition relative to the standard weight may be directly indicated to a weighed person in accordance with a particular lamp which is lit.

4 Claims, 4 Drawing Figures A PERSONALWEIGHING DEVICE BACKGROUND JLOF 1 THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a system forlighting a group of lamps located-sidebyside, on a flat-type personal weighing CICVIC;:- v I 1 his well known to arrange a plurality of lamps symmetrically to a lampadapted to be lit in accordance with standard weights (with respect to particular heights), so that said plurality of lamps are separately lit to indicate any excess or shortage with respect to said standard weights. 7

In such a device of conventional type, however, the ranges of excess or stortage associated with the respective ones of said plurality of lamps'have been predetermined independently of the magnitudes of particular standard weights. Thus, said plurality of lamps have been adapted tobe separately lit in accordance with each fixed magnitude excess or shortage. For example, an excess orshortageof kg might have lighted a lamp regardless of the magnitude of a particular standard weight of a person, who may, forexample, weigh as much as 80 kg or as little as 50 kg.

Such systems are somewhat irrational in that they do not take into account the magnitude of standard weights such as would bethe case if these lamps would be lit'with an excess or shortageof 4 kg for a person who weighs 80 kg and an excess or'shortage of 2.5 kg for another person who'weighs 50 kg.

Thus, it is an object of this invention to'provide a weighing-device lighting/system having lamps for indicating excess-and-shortage weight increments relative to standard weights (with respect to particular heights) wherein the magnitudes of these increments vary inaccordance with variations in the magnitudes of said standard-weight variations-L It isa further object of this invention to provide such a device which is uncomplicated structure but yet which is reliable and hasa prolonged life. i

The present invention provides an improved system to overcome the drawbacks as mentioned above which is effectively simplified in construction and'facilitates reliable and smooth electrical contact for lamp switches.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a plan view showinga preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a side view of the embodiment of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a side view, partially broken away, showing I the inner mechanism of the embodiment of FIG. 1; and FIG. 4 is an exploded perspective view showing an important part included in the embodiment of FIG. 1.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED I EMBODIMENT Now the present invention will be described more in detail with respect to the accompanying drawings which show a preferred embodiment of the invention.

Numeral l designates a footstool which covers a base frame 2 and is provided in the middle of an upper portion thereof with a window 3 through which, as will be described in detail later, a weight-scale disc 4"and a height scale disc 5 may benobserved with respect to an index 6. Numerals 7 and 8 designate knobs by which contact plates on the outer periphery of the annular Y 2.. the. zero pointof the height scale discx5 is manually adjusted.

Justas in a conventional personal-weighingdevice, a load placed on the footstool l causes'a spring which supports a lever, not shown, to be expanded by said lever and this expansion sets a rack 9free from a locking effect of said lever so as to be displaced by a spring 10 in the directionof an arrow, as seen in FIG. 4, and to rotate the weight scale disc 4 by a pinion 11.

This pinion 11 is supported by a supporting frame 12 which is, in turn, a central annular portion of the height scale disc 5 and protrudes thereout. The protruding end of said pinion 11 is provided with the weight scale disc 4 and a disc 14, which has a movable contact 15, both securely mounted thereon. v

The height scale disc 5 includes a central annular portion 13 with a thread 17 provided on an inner wall. This thread is engaged by a disc 16 fixed on a top surface of the supporting frame 12. Said disc 16 is peripherally provided with a plurality of projections 16' slightly twisted so as to engagesaid threads 17.

As the height scale disc 5 is rotated, therefore, the

scale disc 5 itself is rotated along said thread 17, so that said scale disc 5 is upwardly or downwardly displaced. There are provided contact plates 18a, 18a, 18b and 18b on the outer periphery of the annular portion 13 symmetrically with respect to a central narrow contact plate 18 so that any of these contact plates may be opposed to said movable contact 15. Eachof thecontact plates is symmetrically arranged ina shape-whichis reduced gradually upward in its width. The position on which the contact plates come in contact with the movable contact 15 depends upon the vertical position of the annular portion 13 as previously mentioned. Variations of the vertical positions of the annular portion 13, under regulation by the height scale disc 5, correspond to variations in width of each contact plate.

A lamp l9 isadaptedto be lit forindicating a standard weight, lamps'19aand 19b are each adapted to be lit to indicate.weight excesses by predetermined per centages of the standard weight, and lamps 19a and 19b are each adapted to be lit to indicate weight shortages by predetermined percentages of the standard weight. These lamps are connected with said contact plates 18, 18a, 18b, 18a and 18b, respectively, so that 5. Thus, the height value of a weighed person indicated to the principles ofthis invention, a weighed person ro-.

tat'es the height scale disc 5, by operation of the knob 7, to adjust the height scale disc 5 to indicate his height value at the index 6. Such adjustment results in both rotational and vertical displacement of the group of the portion 13 by means of the thread 17. Thus, the vertical position at which the movable contact 15 is brought into contact with the annular portion 13 is varied. This variation is such that the annular portion '13 is moved v value while the movable contact is also rotated, to-

gether with the disc 4, and contacts any one of the group of contact plates 18, 18a, 18b, 18a and 18b which causes the desired one of the group of lamps to be lit.- This enables indication of an excess-or-shortage weight increment relative to the standard weight of the weighed person.

A most remarkable feature of the device, according to the present invention, lies in the fact that any one of the lamps is lit in accordance with excess or shortage by a predetermined percentageassociated with the particular lamp lit. The reason for this is that the area over which the movable contact 15 is brought into contact with any one of the group of contact plates is adjusted by vertically moving said group of contact plates according to movement of the height scale disc. In this regard, the annular portion 13 on the height scale disc may be vertically moved in accordance with the rotatory angle of the height scale disc to enable an accurate indication in an automatic manner with an extremely simplified construction.

This feature is practically advantageous in facilitating fabrication and assembly, and provides a movable contact and a group of contact plates which are brought into smooth contact with each other and therefore have prolonged lives.

I claim: V

l. A personal weighing device comprising:

a footstool means for supporting persons who respectively stand thereon;

a weight indicating means linked to said footstool means for revolving about an axis relative to a stationary index means an amount proportional to the weights of said persons who stand on said footstool, to weight-indicating positions, and thereby indicating the weights of said persons, said weight indicating means including a first electrical contact means which also, simultaneously with said weight indicating means, revolves about said axis; and

a weight-excess-or-shortage indicating means includan array of lamps;

an electrical energizing means for selectively energizing said lamps; and

a height-setting means which is adjustable to positions corresponding to the heights of said persons who stand on said footstool, at which positions said height-settingmeans can be compared with said weight indicating means at said weightindicating positions to indicate percentage differences, relative to standard weights (for various humanheights), between said indicated weights and said standard weights, said heightasetting means including a second electrical contact means for making sliding contact with said first electrical contact means as said weight indicating means rotates and thereby completing electrical circuits between said electrical energizing means and ones of said lamps, wherein adjustment of said height-setting means causes said second contact means to both revolve about said axis and to move axially;

wherein one of said contact means comprises a pattern of contact plates which have tapered shapes in the axial direction such that as said height-setting means is adjusted, the area over which said other contact means may contact plates, as said weight indicating means rotates, is varied.

2. A personal weighing device as claimed in claim 1 wherein said first electrical contact means comprises said pattern of contact plates and said second electrical contact means is said other contact means. a

3. A personal weighing device as claimed in claim 2 wherein said weight indicating means comprises a rotatable disc and said first electrical contact means comprises a single contact brush which rotates simultaneously with said disc; and

said height setting means comprises a disc having an annular portion formed thereon, said annular portion extending along said axis, with said pattern of contact plates being disposed, side-by-side, on an outer periphery of said annular portion.

4. A personal weighing device as claimed in claim 3 wherein said annular portion has internal threads which engage astationary member such that as said annular 

1. A personal weighing device comprising: a footstool means for supporting persons who respectively stand thereon; a weight indicating means linked to said footstool means for revolving about an axis relative to a stationary index means an amount proportional to the weights of said persons who stand on said footstool, to weight-indicating positions, and thereby indicating the weights of said persons, said weight indicating means including a first electrical contact means which also, simultaneously with said weight indicating means, revolves about said axis; and a weight-excess-or-shortage indicating means including: an array of lamps; an electrical energizing means for selectively energizing said lamps; and a height-setting means which is adjustable to positions corresponding to the heights of said persons who stand on said footstool, at which positions said height-setting means can be compared with said weight indicating means at said weightindicating positions to indicate percentage differences, relative to standard weights (for various human heights), between said indicated weights and said standard weights, said height-setting means including a second electrical contact means for making sliding contact with said first electrical contact means as said weight indicating means rotates and thereby completing electrical circuits between said electrical energizing means and ones of said lamps, wherein adjustment of said height-setting means causes said second contact means to both revolve about said axis and to move axially; wherein one of said contact means comprises a pattern of contact plates which have tapered shapes in the axial direction such that as said height-setting means is adjusted, the area over which said other contact means may contact plates, as said weight indicating means rotates, is varied.
 2. A personal weighing device as claimed in claim 1 wherein said first electrical contact means comprises said pattern of contact plates and said second electrical contact means is said other contact means.
 3. A personal weighing device as claimed in claim 2 wherein said weight indicating means comprises a rotatable disc and said first electrical contact means comprises a single contact brush which rotates simultaneously with said disc; and said height setting means comprises a disc having an annular portion formed thereon, said annular portion extending along said axis, with said pattern of contact plates being disposed, side-by-side, on an outer periphery of said annular portion.
 4. A perSonal weighing device as claimed in claim 3 wherein said annular portion has internal threads which engage a stationary member such that as said annular portion is rotated said annular portion, along with said height-setting disc, is moved axially. 